EARLY CELTIC CHURCHES OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 199 



twice, thrice even, in one year. Xot a single year passed duiing 

 the eighth and ninth centuries but that three or four famous 

 foundations and a host of lesser monasteries were ljurned to the 

 ground ; yet we find them, apparently within a few weeks or 

 months, recovered from tlieir fall, and tlieir " fandlies " of monks 

 quietly pursuing their wonted way. AVhen in the ninth or tenth 

 centuries there first dawned upon the mind of some Irish 

 architect of true genius the conception of the Irish liound 

 Tower, wliich, raising its graceful and impregnable summit beside 

 the tiny church or group of oratories and cells which it was 

 its duty to protect, offered to them in moments of danger not 

 only a refuge for the sacred books and vessels of the Church, 

 Init a place of safety to the entire conmiunity, the unfortunate 

 monks could watch with coniparative freedom from anxiety the 

 course of the depredations proceeding below : could issue out 

 unharmed when all was over, to clear away and re-erect their 

 demolished dwellings and to re-thatch the tiny church or group 

 of churches which lay beneath tlie shadow of the belfry-tower. 

 " Scattered all over the country these ancient towers stand to- 

 day as they stood in times of foreign incursion, calm, dignified, 

 and picturesque, symbols of safety in the midst of confusion, of 

 peace and confidence in the midst of terror. The little 

 churches at tlieir feet are wasted by the liand of time, the 

 graveyards over-grown ; but the IJound Tower still holds erect 

 its head, castino; over tlie ancient settlement the same feeling of 

 protective care, the same sense of patient watchfulness that 

 made it, in days gone by, the guardian of the village, the 

 one spot of repose and security." {Early Christian Ireland, 

 p. 215.) 



A clear grasp of the social conditions which modified and 

 moulded the monastic life of the sixth and seventh centuries seems 

 to me to enable us without any dilficulty to understand the 

 peculiarities of Celtic Church organisation. Where there were 

 no towns except the monasteries, no parishes and no regular 

 dioceses, the diocesan system which had been adopted in Britain 

 in Eoman times and which St. Patrick naturally desired to 

 pass on to Ireland, fell to pieces of itself ; it was wholly unsuited 

 to the needs of the people and to the conditions of the time. Its 

 revival was, so far as I am able to see, part of the general re- 

 organisation of the Church system under lioinan supervision in 

 the eighth and ninth centuries. Bishops there were in plenty, 

 but they occupied a different position. They necessarily sank 

 into a subordinate position to the all-powerful Abbot who 

 ruled each large establishment. They became rather adjuncts 



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